Archive for the ‘Rob Lowe’ Category

Rob Lowe gave an interview with “GQ” where he spoke of his new show “The Grinder”, along with the central concept, the objectification of men and doing whatever he can to get a laugh.

With regard to the show’s title, he said, “Newsflash: We’re being funny on purpose. You can all rest easy. I also want to say, in a world of a show called The Leftovers, in a world of a show called Numb Threers, whatever the hell that show is called, do you really want to tell me The Grinder is the worst title you’ve ever heard? Really, you wanna go there? ‘Cause I will go there! Numb Threers. The Leftovers. No one wants leftovers. I love the people at HBO, and I love Justin Theroux. Terrible, horrible title! Cold leftovers! They wanna get in my face with Grinder?”

He also talked about the show’s premise, saying, “I understand where it comes from, but it does make me laugh — the chattering class goes on and on about the lack of original concepts. But then when they are faced with an original concept, they fret over how to sustain it. So you really can’t win. Should it be more banal and generic so you don’t worry about where we go? We can do that if you want.”

When speaking of the objectification of men, he said, “We did a whole sequence of why he left The Grinder. And the reason he left is he felt objectified. People go on and on about the objectification of women, and rightly so. But what about the objectification of men? When was the last time you saw Grey’s Anatomy? So what I love about this show is these wry, insightful looks at contemporary culture in entertainment as seen through the eyes of a regular Idaho family because they have a conduit to it in my character.”

He added, “Believe me, after the scene we did last night, I know I’ve left all my dignity at the altar of comedy. We did a scene where Jason Alexander, as the creator of the show within the show, wants me to take my shirt off one too many times. And I’m like, ‘I took my shirt off in the church sequence, I took my shirt off in the jury-deliberation sequence, do you think maybe we can do this Thanksgiving scene without me taking my shirt off?’ He’s like, ‘Man, you’re the Grinder. You’re the sex symbol. Don’t overthink this. Give the people what they want.’ And I very slowly and shamefully unbutton my shirt. And then he looks at me and I realize what he wants to see is nipple. It’s a parody of that great Irene Cara scene in Fame, which I’ve never forgotten. There’s nothing funnier than a sad, shameful stripper — when played by a man.”

Rob Lowe is featured on the cover of the October issue of “GQ” and inside, he talks about the Brat Pack and leaving his role as Sam Seaborn in “The West Wing.”

With regard to the Brat Pack, he said, “In 1985, right before St. Elmo’s Fire opened, New York magazine labeled Emilio, Sean Penn, Tom Cruise, Judd Nelson, and me ‘Hollywood’s Brat Pack.’ It was hard. We were totally minimized—like we were indistinguishable pretty people. But the irony was, it ended up being a piece that was too hip for the room. The snark was completely lost on the rest of the country. Everybody just thought it was fucking great. You know, I’ve had Peyton and Eli Manning come up to me and play scenes from St. Elmo’s Fire. I’ve had Gwyneth Paltrow play scenes from St. Elmo’s Fire. So after years of that, I’m down with the Brat Pack.”

On the topic of leaving “The West Wing”, he said, “When I left The West Wing I remember Martin Sheen taking me aside and saying, ‘Boy, I sure hope you know where you’re headed with this. I mean, man, you’d better have Steven Spielberg offering to put you in a movie.’ I was like, ‘Well, no, I don’t.’ But look, I love a negotiation where they make it really easy for you. I love it when it’s like a ‘take it or leave it’ that’s insulting. In the end, I could have lived with the fact that everyone on the show had gotten a raise but me—if I felt that we really knew what the story lines were going to be. One writer on the show told me he was in a meeting in which they told him to write whatever he wanted. He goes, ‘I want to write a story about Sam Seaborn going back to Ohio to deal with his father who has Alzheimer’s.’ The response: ‘You can write for anybody but him.’ I’m not even sure that it was Aaron Sorkin who said it. Aaron may know nothing about it.”

All in all, he said working on the show was pretty grueling. He added, “…And I loved The West Wing. But man, it was grueling. We shot near the Friends stage, and we would roll in at, like, six in the morning, and the ‘friends’ would come in, in their Ferraris and Lamborghinis, like, at 11:30 a.m., and by midnight they would have shot their show. They’d be gone and we’d be there until six in the morning. The sun would rise. That would never happen in TV today. Never. They’d never pay for the overtime. It was a moment in time, both in terms of the economics of the business and how successful the show was. Aaron had the kind of latitude to do it. It will never be done again.”

Rob Lowe has been sober for nearly a quarter century, however, he found the experience of filming a drug scene and acting all lit up on cocaine in his film Sex Tape, “vaguely familiar.” Lowe plays Cameron Diaz’ potential boss in the movie. He spoke of the filming scene at the premiere:

“That was weird. I’m sober 24 years now, so dong those hardcore drugs in the movie and we shot it as the sun was coming up, it was like, ‘Wait a minute, this seems vaguely familiar to me—all we need are the birds.”

Lowe has also been very open about his sobriety. In an interview on Oprah Prime, he says about rehab:

“I loved it. I don’t know what that says about me. I didn’t love the fact that I had to go and it was absolutely painful, but I liked the science. I couldn’t have gotten sober without rehab because I needed the science. I needed to [learn about] addiction and what it does to your body and all of the research and the things like that.”

The former Parks and Recreation star continued, “A lot of people can do it through 12-step programs alone—I wouldn’t have been one of them, although I believe in them. I needed to do the work.”

It’s gotta be weird to act out all those demons in your past for a movie. I guess he knew how to play the scene?

Lowe is slated to appear in the Lifetime movie, Beautiful and Twisted, a real life murder story about the Fontainebleau hotel heir, Ben Novack Jr. Candice Bergen and Paz Vega are also slated to star in the TV movie.